CALB vigorously expanding battery production capacity to hit 500GWh target for 2025

CALB, short for China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology, is ambitious to hit an annual power battery production capacity of 500GWh by 2025 and 1TWh by 2030, the company's Chairman Liu Jingyu said in last November at a corporate strategy launching ceremony.

CALB holding strategic launching ceremony in Nov. 2021; photo credit: CALB

The newest target for 2025 is 200GWh higher than the goal CALB unveiled in last June. Actually, it was the second time for CALB to elevate its battery capacity target. At the beginning of last year, the company said it eyed 200GWh of yearly manufacturing capacity by 2025.

The frequent revisions of goal indicated that CALB is amongst rapid growth of market demands. For the first eleven months of 2021, the Changzhou-headquartered company recorded an installed power battery capacity of 7.5GWh, which zoomed up 171.7% from the previous year and represented a 5.8% share in Chinese power battery market, according to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance (CAPBIIA). The volume also made CALB the No.3 power battery supplier in China, only following CATL and BYD.

CALB's power batteries are not only used by such legacy automakers as GAC Group, Changan Automobile, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery Auto, and BAIC Group for their new energy vehicle (NEV) models, but also power startup-owned models like the Leapmotor C11.

The company has so far deployed six battery manufacturing bases in China, which locate in Changzhou, Luoyang, Xiamen, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Hefei. Except Luoyang, the other five cities all witnessed CALB's endeavors to expand its battery production capacity last year.

Gasgoo hereby enumerated the significant moments about CALB's capacity expansion moves in 2021.

In Jintan district, Changzhou city, the company plans six phases of manufacturing projects, aiming to form a total capacity of 70GWh per year. Last year, CALB held “topping out” ceremonies for the main buildings of the 3rd phase and the 2nd JSA3 project, and struck a pact for the 25GWh 4th phase.

Signing agreement for CALB Xiamen base's third phase; photo credit: CALB

In Xiamen, Fujian province, CALB has deployed 65GWh of annual capacity in total after signing an investment agreement for the 15GWh third phase.

On Nov. 19, CALB inked an agreement with Hefei municipal government to increase its Hefei base’s capacity to 100GWh. The move came only 11 days after the company broke ground on the manufacturing base in the capital of East China’s Anhui province.

Notably, it took CALB only two months to start building both Hefei and Wuhan bases after signing agreements with local authorities, and only one month for the Chengdu base.

CALB, Heilongjiang provincial government signing agreement; photo credit: CALB

What's more, CALB signed a strategic cooperation agreement in early Nov. to build a new industrial base in Heilongjiang province. Liu Jingyu revealed the company wished to build there an industrial chain fully covering power and energy storage batteries, key upstream materials, the R&D and production of high-end intelligent manufacturing equipment, as well as downstream market applications. Nevertheless, the agreement didn’t mention the target capacity it plans to deploy.

With respect to overseas business deployment, CALB formed a strategic partnership with German construction engineering company Drees & Sommer to build in Europe a power battery manufacturing base with an annual capacity of over 20GWh.